An 81-year-old Palm Coast resident on foot was killed in a collision with a car as he was crossing the road at U.S. 1 and Royal Palms Parkway early Saturday morning. The 20-year-old Daytona Beach man driving the car suffered minor injuries, according to the Florida Highway Patrol. The victim is the fifth pedestrian killed on Flagler County roads so far this year, representing a third of all road fatalities.
The driver, who immediately called the 911 dispatch center, was on his way to work when he reported that “a guy walked in front of him,” according to dispatch notes. The driver placed the initial call to 911 at 3:30 a.m.
The driver was distraught, screaming to the dispatcher as he described the victim in the road and oncoming traffic. Responders were at the scene within minutes and already aware that the victim would not have survived. He was pronounced deceased by a paramedic at 3:37 a.m. U.S. 1 northbound was shut down as was Royal Palms in both directions at that segment.
According to FHP, which is conducting the investigation, the driver was traveling north on U.S. 1 as he approached the intersection with Royal Palms. At that moment, the pedestrian was walking east across U.S. 1, “in the area of the marked pedestrian crosswalk from Education Way.” (The road immediately opposite to Royal Palms there is Education Way, the dead end that leads into the school district’s bus depot.) The driver’s sedan’s left front struck the victim.
Authorities conducted a voluntary blood draw from the driver. All roads were reopened to traffic by 8 a.m.
The fatality on Saturday was the 15th this year on Flagler County roads. Though the figure is considerably lower than the 24 and 27 road fatalities recorded in 2023 and 2022, five of the road fatalities this year were to pedestrians, or as many pedestrian fatalities as the combined total of the three previous years. of There have been 1,242 crashes recorded in Flagler County so far this year, 46 of them involving pedestrians. Fatalities included one cyclist and three motorcyclists.
Flagler County Traffic Crashes and Fatalities, 1990-2023
| 2023 | 1,453 | 24 |
| 2022 | 1,436 | 27 |
| 2021 | 1,468 | 16 |
| 2020 | 1,445 | 27 |
| 2019 | 1,431 | 11 |
| 2018 | 1,279 | 15 |
| 2017 | 1,190 | 33 |
| 2016 | 1,104 | 25 |
| 2015 | 1,377 | 12 |
| 2014 | 876 | 28 |
| 2013 | 1,063 | 16 |
| 2012 | 844 | 15 |
| 2011 | 620 | 22 |
| 2010 | 716 | 23 |
| 2009 | 715 | 16 |
| 2008 | 695 | 31 |
| 2007 | 792 | 16 |
| 2006 | 822 | 30 |
| 2005 | 805 | 20 |
| 2004 | 609 | 20 |
| 2003 | 508 | 17 |
| 2002 | 460 | 16 |
| 2001 | 326 | 16 |
| 2000 | 438 | 18 |
| 1999 | 382 | 16 |
| 1998 | 367 | 17 |
| 1997 | 382 | 13 |
| 1996 | 385 | 10 |
| 1995 | 360 | 11 |
| 1994 | 338 | 7 |
| 1993 | 307 | 10 |
| 1992 | 264 | 13 |
| 1991 | 274 | 10 |
| 1990 | 304 | 15 |
R.S. says
Traffic planners and driver-educators should shoulder a good part of the blame for the pedestrian deaths. I rarely see a car stop at a marked pedestrian crossing. I suppose that drivers assume the marked area to be a good place for cars to stop on. As a bicyclist, I slow down to be ready to yield to all idiots who, not wanting to lose a second of their time, run across the pedestrian walkway/bicycle path crossings. One of the worse decisions that traffic planners make is to permit right turns on red. There should not be any such general rule when pedestrian/bicycle traffic crosses to the right of the stopped vehicles. Drivers will look into the direction of oncoming traffic on their left and blithely ignore crossing traffic on their right. In Europe, you’ll see a green arrow that marks right-turn permitted intersections. There only, right turns after stop are permitted. I have also seen in Palm Coast intersections where the stop line for cars is on the far side of the croswalk; that design forces drivers to stop on the pedestrian/bicyclist crosswalk. And that design is an invitation for disaster. I have also experienced impatient drivers honking their horns behind me as I stop for pedestrian traffic at crossing paths. There is a lamentable ignorance or carelessness on the part of people behind steering wheels.